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At least four Americans are among the dead in Sri Lanka bombings, State Department confirms

Katie Mettler and Michael Brice-Saddler, The Washington Post| on
April 22, 2019

This picture taken on May 27, 2018 shows Bestseller-owner Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife Anne Holch Povlsen as they arrive at the celebration of the 50th birthday of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Bestseller company confirmed on April 22, 2019, that the Holch Povlsen couple lost three of their children in the attacks in Sri Lanka.

This picture taken on May 27, 2018 shows Bestseller-owner Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife Anne Holch Povlsen as they arrive at the celebration of the 50th birthday of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in Royal

This picture taken on May 27, 2018 shows Bestseller-owner Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife Anne Holch Povlsen as they arrive at the celebration of the 50th birthday of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Bestseller company confirmed on April 22, 2019, that the Holch Povlsen couple lost three of their children in the attacks in Sri Lanka.

This picture taken on May 27, 2018 shows Bestseller-owner Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife Anne Holch Povlsen as they arrive at the celebration of the 50th birthday of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in Royal

At least four Americans are among the dead in Sri Lanka bombings, State Department confirms

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Ben Nicholson and his wife, Anita, were sitting down for breakfast with their two children when the bombs went off. The family was on holiday in Sri Lanka, something Nicholson attributes to his wife's committment to providing a culturally fulfilling life for their children.

The British family of four went in to the restaurant at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, but Ben Nicholson was the only one who survived the explosion, detonated by a suicide bomber in line at the restaurant's buffet.

Anita Nicholson and their children, 14-year-old son Alex and 11-year-old daughter Annabel, "died instantly, with no pain or suffering," Nicholson said in a statement Monday.

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"I am deeply distressed at the loss of my wife and children," Nicholson said. "Anita was a wonderful, perfect wife and a brilliant, loving and inspirational mother to our two wonderful children."

The Nicholsons were among eight British nationals killed in Sunday's attack, according to diplomats in Sri Lanka. At least 12 nations - including India, Japan, the United States and, most significantly, Sri Lanka - have been touched by the bombings. A Sri Lankan state minister for defense said officials raised the death toll in Sunday's attacks to 311, up from 290 the day before. The country is marking a national day of mourning on Tuesday.

The majority of the victims were Sri Lankan, many of them Christians who were worshiping at churches in three cities when bomb blasts at around 8:45 a.m. splintered pews and collapsed ceilings.

Among the dead were four Americans, according to a spokesman for the State Department, with "several" others seriously injured.

Officials at an elite Washington-area private school, Sidwell Friends, confirmed the death of one of its students in an email to parents. The fifth-grade boy, Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa, had been on leave for the last year in Sri Lanka and was killed in the bomb attacks Sunday.

"Kieran was passionate about learning, he adored his friends, and he was incredibly excited about returning to Sidwell Friends this coming school year," the school wrote. "We are beyond sorry not to get the opportunity to welcome Kieran to the Middle School."

At St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, the largest Roman Catholic congregation in the capital, 52-year-old Delicia Fernando was sitting toward the front of the sanctuary when an explosion tore open the room. She and the children were okay, but her husband, Ravi, had been standing in the back of the church. They found him crushed under debris from the collapsed roof and his body pierced with shrapnel.

St. Anthony's is a common tourist destination, as are the three luxury hotels also attacked in Colombo. Sri Lanka officials said 39 of the victims were foreign tourists, and another 28 were wounded.

One of the foreign victims was Dieter Kowalski of Denver. His death was confirmed by his family and employer.

"It is with great [sadness] and deep regret that as Dieter's brother that I confirm that Dieter was among the victim's that passed away in Sri Lanka," Derrick Kowalski wrote on Facebook Monday. "As we know that Dieter saw his friends as family, we would like to share our grief over this tragic incident."

Dieter Kowalski, a Wisconsin native working for the education publishing company Pearson, left Friday for a business trip to Colombo. "And the fun begins," he wrote on Facebook. "Love these work trips. 24 hours of flying. See you soon Sri Lanka!"

Kowalksi had just arrived at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel when a bomb was detonated inside the ground-floor restaurant, where families and guests were gathered for an Easter breakfast buffet.

"We're angry that a good man, who took simple pleasure in fixing things, has been killed, along with many others, by evil men and women who know only how to destroy," John Fallon, the chief executive of Pearson, wrote in an email to employees Monday, TV station Fox 6 reported.

Kowalski was a senior leader for Pearson's operation technical services team. He was traveling to Sri Lanka to meet with local engineering teams to "troubleshoot some difficult challenges that were important to our customers," Fallon said in his email.

Other victims included the children of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, who owns international clothing chain Bestseller, is the largest private landowner in Britain and is the largest single shareholder for the popular clothing brand Asos.

Povlsen and his family were visiting Sri Lanka for the Easter holiday, the BBC reported. Three of his four children were killed in the bombing attacks, a Bestseller spokesman told BBC.

"Unfortunately, we can confirm the reports," the spokesman said. "We ask you to respect the privacy of the family and we therefore have no further comments."

Sri Lankan news outlet Hiru News reported that celebrity chef Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter were also killed in the explosions. The women and their family were eating Easter breakfast in a restaurant in the upscale Shangri-La Hotel when the bombs detonated.

Just before the explosion, Mayadunne's daughter, Nisanga Mayadunne, posted a photo of their family at the table and captioned it: "Easter breakfast with the family."

Shantha Mayadunne was the first chef to have a live TV cooking show in Sri Lanka, ABC Australia reported. She published two books and taught cooking classes and workshops. She also ran the Shantha Mayadunne School of Cooking Art, reported Gulf News.

"When I heard the news, I was left numbed and shocked. I don't know what more to say," Radha Fonseca, Nisanga Mayadunne's college friend, told Gulf News. "Destiny has taken away both of them. I am devastated."

Sushma Swaraj, the Indian minister for external affairs, has been using her Twitter feed to share the names of victims confirmed dead in the Sunday blasts. At least five people killed were in Sri Lanka on vacation after working on India's general election Thursday, reported ABC News. The group had been staying at Shangri-La Hotel, which wrote in a Facebook post that three of its staff members, who were not named, were also killed in the bombings.

Among those who died in the Shangri-La Hotel was businessman K.G. Hanumantharayappa, of Bangaluru, who according to The New York Times was in town for just a few days when the bombs went off.

Government officials in Japan identified a Japanese woman who died in the blasts, reported NHK World-Japan. Kaori Takahashi, a Sri Lankan resident, was reportedly at Shangri-La eating breakfast with her family when a bomb exploded in the second-floor restaurant there.

Two engineers from Turkey were also killed in the blasts. Turkey's minister of foreign affairs, Mevlut Cavusoglu, identified the engineers Monday as Serhan Selcuk Narici and Yigit Ali Cavus.

Local media outlets in Bangladesh reported that a young family member of several politicians was killed in Colombo, where he was staying with his family on holiday.China, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Portugal also lost citizens in the attack, the Associated Press reported. Most of those victims have not yet been named.

Sudesh Kolonne, whose family moved from Melbourne, Australia to Sri Lanka in 2014, said he could see his Australian wife and 10-year-old child dead on the floor of St. Sebastian Catholic Church following the attack. The AP reports Kolonne walked outside, ahead of his family, just moments before a bomb went off. "I don't know what to do," Kolonne told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "We used to go to that church every Sunday. We never expected this."